Electric Motorcycle Racing Comes of Age

Michael Barnes of Lightning Motorcycles has already won the TTXGP North American championship ahead of this weekend’s final race. But the real winner is the sport of electric motorcycle racing.

As the North American season comes to a close at VIRginia International Raceway this weekend, the people who have organized the races and the teams that have run them are reflecting on a series that provided far more excitement than electric naysayers expected.

There’s clearly a lot of room for improvement, and the nascent sport is still a long way from maturity. But the competition has been intense and the quality of the motorcycles has largely been high. And the races — often staged alongside marque events like this weekend’s Suzuki White Lightning AMA Nationals — have shown people electric motorcycles are viable.

“People are really excited about this,” said Jennifer Bromme of Werkstatt Motorcycle Racing and Repair, an outfit based in San Francisco. “People are coming up to us in the pits to ask about the bikes, and they’re coming into my shop asking where they can buy an electric motorcycle. I really think electric motorcycles are going to take off.”

Bromme is ranked second in the standings, with 42 points to Barnes’ 70. Although Barnes and his bright yellow Lightning Motorcycles machine (pictured above) have dominated the season — and clinched the rider’s championship after the last round — the competition behind him has been fierce. Just six points separate the next three riders, so expect a tight race for second place in the rider’s standings.

“There’s been a lot of development with the bikes,” Bromme said. “The racing’s getting closer and closer.”

The season’s top eight finishers will compete against the best of Europe at the world championship in Albacete, Spain in October.

The workmanship of the motorcycles is impressive, especially considering this sport didn’t exist in any real sense just two years ago. Azhar Hussain launched the TTXGP in 2008 and the first race was held on the Isle of Man last year.

Shawn Higbee celebrates his win at Infineon Raceway.

A few relatively big-budget outfits — most notably Zero Motorcycles and Agni Motors — have joined the action, but most of the teams are low-buck, run-what-you-brung operations. That’s prompted tremendous innovation as teams run everything from a gorgeous vintage Norton Featherbed to a converted Yamaha TZ250 racer.

But if the series has had a problem, it is the gulf between the leaders and the rest of the pack. Several teams were clearly outgunned from the start, either because their budgets were too small or their technology too crude. In an effort to draw more teams, TTXGP plans to break the competition into two divisions next year.

“One thing we’ve learned is the sport is maturing at such a pace that one class cannot cater to everyone,” Hussain said. “Next year there will be more classes.”

Race organizers are still sorting out the details, but the idea is a spec class in which teams use the same components — motors and controllers, for example. That would make it easier to build competitive machines.

“What the spec class will do is create a level of consistency throughout the grid so all of the teams can compete,” Hussain said. “They can still innovate in some areas, but there will be some core components that are specified.”

In another effort to broaden the grid, TTXGP and Campus Automobile Spa-Francorchamps will offer a course in how to build an electric motorcycle. The five-day program in April includes everything needed to build a bike that students will test on the track at Spa and then take home with them. It’s pricey at €8,000 (about $10,200), but a relatively easy way to go racing. And you get to experience Eau Rouge, one of the greatest corners in all of motorsports.

Jennifer Bromme on her Mavizen.

By adding a spec class and offering a “how-to” course, Hussain is confident we’ll see 20 bikes or so racing in the United States next year and at least that many in Europe.

“I will be disappointed if we don’t see 50 bikes competing in the entire series,” he said.

KTM is the only major manufacturer to venture into the electric arena so far, having unveiled a prototype of the Freeride electric motocross machines earlier this year. It also provides the chassis Mavizen uses in the TTX02 electric superbike that Bromme’s been campaigning.

But there are rumors afoot — Hussain would not comment on them — that two big players are interested in racing next year. And TTXGP will occupy a 1,500-square-foot booth at the big Intermot motorcycle show in Cologne in October, where it is sure to attract more attention.

Though the North American season comes to a close Sunday, there’s still plenty of action in Europe with races in the United Kingdom and Italy scheduled through October. The TTXGP will run 12 races in all this season. Perhaps the most remarkable thing is that TTXGP has done this largely on its own, with only a few sponsors and no support from motorcycle racing sanctioning bodies.

“There isn’t a guidebook for doing these things,” said Hussain, a tech entrepreneur who is financing this largely out-of-pocket. “There was a certain element of making this up as we went, but only because no one was telling us anything.”

Although the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, the sanctioning body behind MotoGP and other top-tier races, planned to work alongside TTXGP, it inexplicably split late last year to launch its own series, E-Power. Both sides suffered for it, but the nascent sport of electric motorcycling was the biggest loser.

As Ivar Kvadsheim noted in an excellent essay at Hell For Leather, the FIM hasn’t managed to attract a top-notch grid, and the TTXGP hasn’t managed to put on a top-notch show. The truth is, both sides need each other. The FIM has the skills and — perhaps most importantly — the money to help the sport grow, while the TTXGP has the teams and the talent.

Electric motorcycle racing came of age this year, and it no doubt will continue to grow next year. But it will grow that much faster, and stronger, if the TTXGP and FIM put aside their differences and work together for the good of the sport.